1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate processing system, a carrying device, and a coating device.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-219561, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-219562, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-219563, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2009-143632, filed on Jun. 16, 2009, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, upon coating a thin film such as a resist film on various substrates such as a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate forming a liquid crystal panel, and a substrate forming a hard disk, a coating device is used to form the coating film on the substrate while rotating the substrate (for example, see Patent Reference 1).
The coating device may be used as, for example, a coating unit mounted to a substrate processing system for performing a substrate loading operation, a substrate coating operation, and a substrate unloading operation.
The substrate processing system includes units for performing the main operations. For example, in the above-described example, a substrate loading unit for performing the loading operation and a substrate unloading unit for performing the unloading operation are mounted to the substrate processing system. In the case where the substrate is carried between plural units, in general, a carrying device is provided for each unit so as to deliver the substrate or a cassette accommodating the substrate between the carrying devices.
Next, the coating device is equipped with a rotary mechanism which rotates the substrate. The rotary mechanism is capable of rotating the substrate by absorbing and holding the substrate.
When the substrate is held by, for example, the rotary mechanism, in many cases, the substrate is carried by the carrying device from outside to the rotary mechanism. As the carrying device, a carrying device having a substrate holding portion provided in a front end of an arm, for example, is known. As the substrate holding portion provided in the carrying device, a substrate holding portion having an absorbing portion for absorbing the substrate, for example, is known. The carrying device carries the substrate up to the coating device, and delivers the substrate to the rotary mechanism of the coating device.
Next, in the coating device, in general, the substrate is laid down so as to be parallel to a horizontal plane and the substrate is rotated while the lower substrate surface is held.
Meanwhile, in the substrate used to form the hard disk, for example, it is necessary to coat the liquid material on both surfaces thereof In the case of this kind of substrate of which both surfaces are required to be coated with the liquid material, it is not possible to hold the lower substrate surface. For this reason, Patent Reference 1, for example, discloses a technology in which the substrate is rotated while the substrate is held by a holding piece.
[Patent Reference 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 7-130642